Sunday, December 27
My parents met us at our house at 6:00am to catch our flight to our annual winter vacation to South Lake Tahoe. This is KK's second year to go. Last year, she was only 4 months, so she slept most of the plane ride. This year she is 16 months old and is Miss Independent who is walking all over the place. So you can see how we were worried. But with 9 other people traveling with us we knew we could pass her around and keep her occupied. She turned out to be the perfect travel companion. Her and her daddy watched a little Backyardigans and took a nap for most of the plane ride.
Yes, that's a pacifier you see in her mouth. It's the only thing that we could do for her so her ears would pop and not bother her during the flight.
I just love this picture of her and her Daddy looking out the window.
We landed in Reno at 11:45am (2 hours time difference) then we met up with Michelle and Brandon and then loaded up in the rental car. Boy were we cramped. We had two Tahoes, but when traveling with 11 people and a week worth of ski luggage, it is tight quarters! Once we were all loaded up we stopped and ate at Chilis in Carson City then headed on towards South Lake Tahoe. (It is about an hour drive from Reno) All that was on our minds now was getting checked into the hotel and settled down in front of the big screen for the Cowboy game!
We stayed at Harveys Casino. Inside the casino there is a Hard Rock Cafe that has a big screen TV and that is where we watched the cowboy game. Everyone in our party had on their Cowboy shirt. KK met some friends while playing with her toys. Actually I am pretty sure they just took her toys from her. She was totally fine with it. (Now her daddy wasn't)
After watching the game, we ate dinner at the Hard Rock and decided to turn in early since we would be skiing in the morning.
Monday, December 28
Wide awake at 6:00am to get ready to go skiing. We left the hotel around 7:00 to go rent our skis at a local ski shop down the street. After getting our skis and a quick bite at Mcdonalds, we were off to the Sierra Ski Resort. My mom and grandma went too, but they don't ski so they kept KK company in the lodge.
Chillin' in her stroller watching her TV at the Ski Lodge.
Brandon, Michelle, Tyler (brother's friend), Josh (my sister's boyfriend) and my dad all went to ski school for 1/2 a day. While they were at ski school the rest of us "pro's" went up the mountain. We left the ski resort around 3:00 to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday, December 29
Another early wake up call and we were out the door to go skiing. This time KK, my mom and grandma stayed at the hotel for a relaxing day in the hotel. As for us our first stop was Denny's for breakfast. Once we were at the resort, we hit the bunny slopes with everyone for a while then convinced Brandon & Michelle to go down a green. They were doing pretty good and thought they could do it. Well, take a look at the pics to see how it turned out for Michelle...
Yes...she decided to walk down the slope instead. It took us almost 2 hours to get down this run. Not kidding! Finally Brandon and I decided to leave "instructor" Gavin with Michelle and head to the lodge for a drink because it was taking forever. Here is a pic from the top of the mountain!
me trying to cool off in the snow after a 2 1/2 mile ski run.
My cousin Bobby and his wife Jessica flew in today to vactation with us. That night we all decided to go eat at a fancy restaraunt in the hotel called Kitchen 19. It was EXPENSIVE but YUMMY. Afterwards, we did some major gambling! I had $100 and played roulette for a while and turned it into $345! I was so excited. Gavin on the other hand lost a lot playing 3 card poker. :( After we gambled we went down and listened to a band play. Remind you it is about 1:00 in the morning Nevada time, and we had been skiing all day! What were we thinking? We finally called it a night around 3:30! WOW!
Wednesday, December 30
As you can guess we slept in today and skipped skiing. Michelle's legs were hurting and the boys head was hurting. We went to the breakfast buffet and then went back and slept some more! For dinner, we went to one of our favorite places to eat at called Fire & Ice. It is like "Mongolian Grill" where you get to pick out your meat and sauce and create your own dinner then watch them cook it on a big open grill. Kennedi was quite good considering we had to wait almost 2 hours. Here she is when Scooter is teaching her to bang her head on the wall...Nice, huh?
He was great entertainment for her.
While we were waiting, we captured a picture of Grandma and her girls! :) We love you Grandma! Because our party was so big they had to split us up into 3 groups. Here is our group:
After dinner, Michelle and I ordered the coolest thing ever...Tableside smores! It had flame in a can and everything else you need to make a smore!
KK enjoyed the marshmallows the best!
Thursday, December 31(NEW YEAR's EVE)
We were rested up and decided to hit the slopes again today. However, Michelle and Brandon were going to hang out on the bunny slopes for a while today. They weren't for sure if they would do a green today. So Gavin and I went up the mountain and skied some blues and greens. It was my first time to go down a blue. It wasn't bad at all.
Gavin is such the pro he skis and takes pics!
Don't we look cute?
My cousin Bobby, my sister Tara, and my dad. I am so proud of my dad. He finally enjoyed himself this year skiing.
Finally, that afternoon we convinced Michelle and Brandon to give the greens another try. They had spent the day on the bunny slope and were doing great. We went down Sugar & Spice (2 1/2 mile run) and they did much better. I even worked up the courage to follow my brother and his friend and do some little runs & hills through the trees.
Here is Tyler doing one of them. They were short and fun. One time Gavin fell because his skis got stuck in the snow. It was so funny.
Once we got back to the hotel, I was exhausted! I just wanted to sleep. So that is what I did. Gavin woke me up about 10:00 Nevada time and I then got ready to go hit the streets to bring in the New Year.
It gets wild in Tahoe! Here is just a glimpse at how many people were out on the street outside the hotel. There were just as many inside the casino too!
Wouldn't be New Year's without the glasses! (I know we are dorks!)
Grandma was having a good night too! She played slots all night! She was quite the night owl! We decided to call it a night around 2:00. We had put KK asleep before we left and knew that she wouldn't wake up so Scooter & Tyler watched her. My parents and our rooms were joining so they were able to watch tv and stuff while she slept in the other room. When we returned to the room, this is how we found our babysitters...
Friday, January 1 (2010...Can you believe it?)
Well we had big plans today to take the Gondola up the mountain and tube and take KK sledding but the weather did not cooperate with us. It was on and off rain. :( So instead we did the buffet again and went shopping and relaxed in the hotel. I was able to get a few pics of KK playing with our New Years accessories. She wouldn't exactly leave the glasses on her head, but here she is trying.
Friday night we all went to Improv in the casino to catch some great laughs from some comedians. We saw Graham Ellwood, Kirk Fox, and Howie Nave. They definitely kept us laughing.
Saturday, January 2
Gavin woke up bright and early and took Michelle & Brandon and Bobby & Jessica to the airport. When he came back KK and I were still snoozing! It was like he never left. We spent the day being lazy and packing. I needed this day to just kick back and relax since Monday will be back to work for me. We also went to dinner at the steakhouse. It was super yummy; however, it did get interrupted by KK going number 2 all over herself. Luckily the steakhouse was in the casino and we were able to go upstairs and clean her up before our food even came. (A little side note about this: she had been stopped up since Friday, so Gavin gave her prune juice. Well it started working about the time we sat down for dinner! Now lets hope thats all of it since we leave to go back home tomorrow. I will pack a couple of pairs of clothes in the carry on just in case!)
We leave tomorrow morning to head back to reality. It has been a great family vacation as always and look forward to next year. KK will really get to ski next year! Can't wait! For now, see ya! :)
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